By 2008/2009,
it was expected that competition in the crude oil market will
have forced prices down as a result of new fields, and current
political and weather effects are consigned to history. Right
now, as described by a lubricant company employee recently, the
upstream crude oil operators are lighting their cigars with $100
bills.

With increasing
demands for profitability, yet with more competition on price,
the upstream sector will be seeking internal measures to reduce
operating costs. One of the key areas of focus is the Maintenance
function and the demand for zero-maintenance equipment from OEMs.
However, ad-hoc maintenance budget and purchasing cuts will result
in unreliable equipment, with short-term savings resulting in
long-term expenses of rectification of neglected systems.

Smart maintenance
allows for better quality of attention, yet with long term, sustained,
reduction in maintenance overheads. Case studies frequently show
an attained 50% increase in productivity, yet with a sustained
50% decrease in maintenance costs. This will translate to increased
service life or an extension of MBTF/R (Mean-time-between-failure/rebuilds).
All of these successes that have been reviewed in the various
journals were achieved through a strategy of implementing Proactive
Maintenance with a strong focus on lubrication.

Proactive strategies
seek to extend machine and component (including the lubricant)
life, and minimise problems associated with their reliable operation.
The benefits of this are actually far reaching, providing financial
gains in areas often overlooked. For example, in the many industry
case studies, it is found that frequent benefits are found in
the following areas as a result of a sound lubrication maintenance
and reliability strategy:

* Improved Health and Safety with an associated risk cost reduction.
More inspections with minimal maintenance intervention will reduce
exposure of personnel to risk associated tasks - a real concern
with limited medical facilities on a platform.

* Improved Environmental compliance within ISO 14000 and the
Responsible Care programmes. Apart from the image perception
of these programmes for the Oil & Gas companies, changes
in practices can again minimise risk costs associated with fines
and penalties. In addition, sound lubrication practices can minimise
energy consumption (Climate Change Levy) through more efficient
manpower and equipment usage and minimised heavy maintenance
tasks.

* Compliance within ISO 9000 which now requires maintenance tasks,
including lubrication activities, to be written and audited for
completeness.

* A defined lubrication strategy will further allow employee
development by setting out the task and education training requirements
for personnel, and offer a route for lubrication engineers to
follow in career development.

If the platform
is to:
* Increase its productivity time,
* And reduce in service maintenance costs and lost production,
* Yet retain, or even improve on its reliability,
* And gain life extension over current machinery service performance.

Then there are some basic principles that must be followed.

1. Select appropriate, quality lubricants and components that
meet the demands of the system design to ensure optimised reliability
needs.
2. Ensure that all the root cause conditions are set correctly
prior to commissioning or before start-up.
3. Undertake regular checks of any root-cause conditions to ensure
these are not beyond acceptable limits during machine operation.
4. Keep production within the safe limits of the component capabilities
to avoid accelerated wear or catastrophic failure.

It is point 3
that is usually a hurdle to most site engineers, in terms of
oil analysis at least, as the remote location of a platform or
field makes it difficult for frequent enough testing to be valid.
The option is for a platform to carry a basic set of oil analysis
tools, but, apart from space constraints, this requires staff
skilled in the use of the instruments for it to be meaningful,
and conscientious enough to use them correctly, even assuming
that time is available for such tasks.

Kittiwake, already
an established leader in the Fuel and Lube Oil testing market
in the Marine industry, has taken steps to address the issues
of oil analysis in these remote conditions. Kittiwake recently
launched a range of remote online sensors for lubricant and machine
condition monitoring.

Kittiwake, based
in West Sussex with over 50 employees, acquired Analex in 2003
to enhance their range of portable, rugged and low cost lubricant
analysis tools. Analex, established in the early 80s, is best
known to engineers as the PQ result seen on millions of oil analysis
reports, and recommended by Caterpillar as the wear debris monitor
of choice.

Speaking at a
recent Distributor conference, Chris Leigh-Jones, Managing Director,
said "Remote online sensor technology is the way forward
in the 21st Century. With the emphasis on machine reliability,
the Kittiwake Sensor range will put lubricant and machine condition
information in the hands of the engineer, real-time. Remote online
sensors improve the overall analysis process, allowing for accurate
trending through more consistent and frequent measurements, which
can only result in a more profitable proactive maintenance strategy."
He added, "The technology would reduce the safety and environmental
hazards associated with sampling in many applications, as well
as benefiting many remote sites where the logistics of shipping
samples is frequently a non-starter."

With regard to
the specification, he pointed out that, "With its self-diagnosing
digital and analogue outputs, the sensors can be easily integrated
into existing Condition Monitoring and operating control systems.
That has to be a benefit to users with high capital cost systems,
and especially to large volume lubricant users. The OEM industry
would also benefit on new builds for improved monitoring during
the critical start-up on new locations. The sensors go beyond
the normal protection devices, and enhance the root-cause monitoring
approach to reliability."May 2010